*******FOR NYANYA ONLY*******

CRJ4500- Discussion Board DUE 10/21/17 @ 1PM

Instructions:

The writing should be clear and concise while using a minimum of two academic sources as support. Participation must be meaningful discussions in the forums with your peers. Your 3 classmates responses must be a minimum of 250 words. You cannot simply say “I agree” or “good job” in your responses, and they must well thought out replies in complete sentences.

Topic:

What recommendations would you make to the government about drug policy, based on what users do and go through and how they narrate their experiences?

Classmate Responses:

1st Person-Toni: After reading chapters 1 and 2 in the book I have come to realize the alcohol is actually the most consumed legal drug as wells as cigarettes. I never considered it a drug, I just considered it an addiction. Then I started realizing how many people I know that died from "drinking themselves to death" and lung cancer. The most used illegal drug according to the 2011 survey in our book "Drugs in American Society" is marijuana. Now marijuana is legal in 24 states. The fifth drug that is the most used is pain killers. Growing up my mother was addicted to pain medication which is also a legal drug. The doctors would keep telling her that she needed this medication and she needed that medication. She also suffers from chronic depression and the pain pills would allow her to sleep more than stay awake. She tried to overdose several times but it never worked because she had a high tolerance for them. In 2010 she fell down our front steps and broke her leg. When we got her to the hospital the doctor put her on a morphine pump. She was still screaming in pain because her body needed more. The doctor came out to my father and told him that he had given her enough morphine to kill three people. This was a wake up call for my father and he would not tolerate the drug abuse anymore. My mother weaned herself off of the pain medication in just a couple months and she has now been clean for 6 years and 7 months. After all of the drug addiction that I have experienced in my family (my mom, both of my sisters, my aunt and uncle, and five cousins) I would ask the Federal Government to dig deeper into the problem of drug addiction. Most of the time addiction stems from trauma of some kind. If there were alternatives maybe we would have less people dying from drugs. Whether they are legal drugs or not. 

References

Goode, E. (2015) Drugs in American Society (9th Ed.) New York: McGraw-Hill Education.

2nd Person-Heather:

The most powerful narrative I can give is my own. I was addicted to drugs for many years. It started when I was prescribed opioid pain pills after multiple surgeries and progressed into just about any drug you can think of (my drugs of choice were pain pills, meth, and Xanax; in that order). When I was arrested for selling methamphetamine, I had never been in any trouble before in my life. I was given a 5 year sentence with 1 to serve in prison. I told the DA that I had a serious addiction and that I had been trying to stop but could not. I told him I needed help and, by the grace of God, they allowed me to take a plea deal for 1 year in rehab instead of prison. It changed my life. Like so many others have already said, what is beneath the drug use has to be dealt with. In rehab, I finally dug that stuff up and learned how to deal with it. Then I learned a new way to live, without drugs. Based on my experience, I have a few suggestions to the government about drug policy:

·         Offenders should be offered rehabilitation services in place of punitive measures, like me. That does not mean the consequences of selling drugs should be removed entirely. I spent 6 months in the county jail, paid a lot of fines, and I am still on felony probation. Jail alone was bad enough for me. I am never going back!

·         Drug offenders should not be allowed to bail out right away. Let them sit in there at least a week. After my initial arrest, I bonded out and went right back to using, even though I had to report to Magistrate to drug test every week! (Don’t ask). Addicts need at least a week to start thinking somewhat straight.

·         The prescribing policy has got to be changed. There is no reason why physicians should be prescribing as many opioid pain relievers as they are (see my reply post to Kenneth).

·         Pill mills have got to go. The only reason these so called pain management clinics are still in business is because of the money.

·         Insurance companies should be made to cover alternative pain management solutions such as chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, exercise classes, etc.

·         A Harm Reduction model should be used more. For example, needle exchange programs, where dirty needles are exchanged for clean ones, is currently illegal in the state of GA.  People with the disease of addiction are at different stages of readiness to change. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to prevent more harm, such as HIV from sharing needles, and let them know where help is when they are ready. The seed of recovery will get planted.

·         As you can see, this is a subject that is near and dear to my heart. I could probably write an entire paper on this one discussion post alone, but I will spare you all. I welcome your feedback.

3rd Person-James:

This is a very interesting as well as important topic to discuss.  The fact of the matter is, drugs are an issue in today’s society.  The question is, what advice would you give to the government about drug policy based on what users go through? First and foremost, I am a firm believer that drug addiction should be treated as a mental illness and not as a criminal offense.  People who do drugs should not be thrown in prison with violent offenders.  Having said that, I also agree that nobody forces someone to do drugs, and it is illegal.  Of course, they should not just get a slap on the wrist and base it off of them having an illness, but this is what makes it so tricky.

Mainly, I believe that there should be much easier access to rehab centers, and possession charges should not be looked as the same as violent offenses.  When in comes to trafficking or possession with the intent to distribute, they should definitely go to jail because they are attempting to make money illegally of a substance that contributes to the loss of lives every year.  The fact of the matter is, many addicts do not have the physical and mental strength to get off of drugs; this is why it is so important to have easier, cheaper access to rehab centers.  We cannot help those who do not want to be helped, but there are many addicts that do want help, but do not have the means to get it. 

Textbook for CRJ4500 only:

Goode, E. (2015). Drugs in American society. [9th ed] Stony Brook University: New York, New York: McGraw Hill Education.